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FAIRY BREAD 



FAIRY BREAD 



BY 

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Laura Benet 



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NEW YORK 

THOMAS SELTZER 
1921 



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COPYKIGHT, 1921, tl 
THOMAS SELTZER, INC. 



All rights reserved 



Printed in United States of America 



DEC 22 71 

©CI.A653207 



TO MY GRANDMOTHER 
MARY LEE ROSE 



"THERE ARE MIRACLES: — AND I HAVE 
SEEN ONE." 



A few of these poems have already appeared in 
Collier's, The Chimaera, Others, The Masses, The 
Literary Review, The Lyric, Contemporary Verse, 
The Century, The Smart Set. The author acknowl- 
edges with thanks permission to reprint them here. 



CONTENTS 

The Quest 11 

"She Wandered After Strange Gods , , ." 13 

Cushy Cow 16 

" Little Fishes in Glass Dishes " . . • , 18 

The Penny 20 

The Witch's House 22 

Pity the Moon 24 

The Thrush 25 

Peter 26 

Adventure 28 

Circles 30 

Humor 32 

Gardens of Babylon 34 

The Dragon's Grandmother 36 

** Feathers — Flowers " 37 

Enemies 40 



FAIRY BREAD 



THE QUEST 

I am seeking for my pool. 
It lies among the heather. 
Where misty momitains gather 
Still and cool. 
Winds fan its shores and guard its gromid 
Yet no breeze brings its murmuring sound. 

J, am seeking for my ring. 
It has fallen in the bushes 
Where the golden-hearted thrushes 
Used to sing. 
Men dig and plant. The earth is tossed — 
Yet my lost circlet none have crossed. 

[ 11 ] 



I am seeking for my heart. 
It left me in the twilight 
When the voices of the night 
Called apart. 
Travellers go far bv land and sea 
Yet no one brings my heart to me. 



r 12 J 



"SHE WANDERED AFTER STRANGE 
GODS . . ." 

O have you seen my fairy steed? 

His eye are wild^ his mane is white, 
He feeds upon an elfin weed 

In cool of autumn night. 

O have you heard my fairy steed, 
Whose cry is like a wandering loon? 

He mourns some cloudy star-strewn mead 
On mountains of the moon. 

O have you tamed my fairy horse, 
To mount upon his back and ride? 

He tears the great trees in his course. 
Nor ever turns aside. 
[ 13 ] 



'Tis he who tames a fairy thing 
Must suffer want and bitter fate ! 

Deftly the bridles did I fling 
That brought him to my gate. 

I soothed and fed and tendered him 
Sweet herbs and honey in a cup. 

And led him in the twilight dim 
To where a spring welled up. 

But there his wings they waved so bright 
Before my eyes, I drooped and slept. 
When I awoke, it seemed dark night. 
I raised my voice and wept. 

Alas, my lightsome fairy steed ! 

I saw my pastures trampled bare 
Where I had sown the springtime seed 

And planted flowers rare ! 
[ 14] 



I saw my barns a mass of flame ! 

His fiery wings had glanced in flight. 
And me — a prey to fear and shame — 

He left, to seek the light ! 



[ 15 1 



CUSHY COW 

Cushy cow has curly horns. 
Delicate, tipped with brown. 

Swifter her hoofs fly backward 
Than any bull's in town. 

We milk her into great white pails 

And crocks of cottage blue. 
And her leavings rvm all over the yard — 

Yet our milking is never through ! 

I found her at smoky twilight 

By the well of the pale primrose, 

Where grey elves hung on her haunches 
And nuzzled her grazing nose. 
[ 16 ] 



But as they cried and cheeped to her 
And whined both plaintive and shrill, 

I caught her by the lock that's loose 
And dragged her up Dead Man's Hill ! 

Awhile she pined for the magic herb. 
Awhile for the spring that's young ; 

But since my sweetheart has sung to her 
She holds a contented tongue. 

Yet it's by but a thread and a broken gate 

We hold our fairy of kine. 
She suckles elf hahies still, hy night. 

Who wither on cowslip wine! 



[ 17] 



LITTLE FISHES IN GLASS DISHES 

Verdant and glassy 
Its sides rise sheerly. 
Light frothy bubbles 
Float to its surface. 
And deep within it 
Transparent fishes. 
Tiny coiled sea-horses 
Swim to and fro. 

Steadily swimming, 
Warily rising, 
Diving and dipping, 
Catching at sea-weed, 
[ 18 ] 



Snapping at stray flies 
And flecks of sunlight. 
Ever in motion, — 
Prey of a vortex. 

Their eyes cryptic, 
Stealthy, translucent. 
Stare into star-space 
Visioning nothing. 
A sword-fish grinning 
Pursues his neighbor, 
A wee mock-turtle 
Heavily weeps. 



[ 19 J 



THE PENNY 

A penny, a penny small, a penny round ! 
Why do you bend your eyes upon the ground? 

Magical things that leap and frisk 
Are conjured up by that copper disk. 

Toss it into the green lagoon; 
It rises in the round, yellow moon. 

Throw it into the cleft yew tree ; 
The woodcutter finds a treasury. 

Spin it on an oak table top; 
And skipping lines of rabbits hop. 
[ 20 ] 



Roll it under the coach of the bride ; 
Luck goes over the country side. 

Ring it that children's feet may sing 
Round barrel organs capering. 

Cheaper than silver, dearer than gold. 
Thistledown light, yet hard to hold. 

A penny, a penny small, a penny gay ! 
Why do you turn your dancing eyes away? 



[ 21 ] 



THE WITCH'S HOUSE 

Its wicked little windows leer 

Beneath a moldy thatch, 
And village children come and peer 

Before they lift the latch. 

A one-eyed crow hops to the door, 
Fat spiders crowd the pane, 

And dark herbs scattered on the floor 
Waft fragrance down the lane. 

It sits so low, the little hutch. 

So secret, shy, and squat, 
As if in its mysterious clutch 

It nursed one knew not what, 

[ 22 ] 



That beggars passing by the ditch 

Are haunted with desire 
To force the door, and see the witch 

Vanish in flames of £re! 



[23 ] 



PITY THE MOON 

A withered crone is the moon to-night 

Bent, unloved and proud, 
Shuffling in the windy light 

Through dipping vales of cloud. 

Her dreams, her airy, delicate dreams 

Are spilled into the sky ; 
And, failing the touch of their brittle gleams. 

Moon will dwindle and die ; 

Greedy stars clutched them as they fell 
From the rim of the white, torn track. 

But her yawning pocket holds no spell 
To conjure her silver back. 
[ 24 ] 



THE THRUSH 

God bade the birds break not the silent spell 

That lay upon the wood. 
Longing for liquid notes that never fell 

Ached the deep solitude. 

The little birds obeyed. No voice awoke. 

Dwelling sedate, apart, 
Only the thrush, the thrush tliat never spoke^ 

Sang from her bursting heart. 



[25 J 



PETER 

Peter of the brothers three 
Loved a life of poesy ; 
While they stolid bargains drove 
He saw movies in the stove. 

Peter was a man of peace 
Happily he tended geese ; 
Though his brothers, as they rose, 
Ran a motor 'neath his nose. 

Peter knew his limitations, — 
Never needed intimations 
Which tunes he was not to sing 
What new cabbage pleased the king. 
[26] 



Peter saw expedience 

Was the way of common sense; 

Sitting quiet on the down 

Grabbed the princess and the crowm 



[27] 



ADVENTURE 

Black wave the trees in the forest 
And a rough wind hurries by, 

But the swineherd's toddling daughter 
Knows where fallen pinecones lie. 

And girt with a snowy apron 
She scampers, alert and gay 

To the hidden pool in the hollow 
Where the wan witch people play. 

They smile, the wee wrinkled women 
They creep to her pinafore ; 

And lay in her lap strange treasures 
Trolls brought from the ocean's floor. 
[ 28 ] 



And they marvel at her blonde tresses 
And braid them with scented fern ; 

And they lave her dusty, brown ankles 
With snow water from the burn. 

But nobody listens, or heeds them 
The swineherd hews a new trail, 

The swineherd's wife in the cottage 
Pours the sour milk from the pail. 

And little Gerta lags homeward 

Dream shod through the shadows deep; 

Her eyelids heavy with wonder — 
They whisper, '* She's been asleep." 



[29 ] 



CIRCLES 

"Yes, this is it, the snowy ring — 
Drawn with chalk and a piece of string! 
Tell me why it was not made square 
With four flat corners glittering there? 

**A child's world knows no certain bound. 
Its magic music goes round and round. 
A child's play has no sudden stop: 
Look at the whirring flight of a top ! 

"A child's mind sketches a shining floor 
On which light fancy opens the door. 
No end to a child's soul ! Hungrily 
It stretches to white infinity. 
[ 30 ] 



"Squares are rigid, but circles yield 
Like the meadow grass of a springing field ! 
So here's the little white circle, meet 
For a merry chorus of children's feet !" 



[ 31 ] 



HUMOR 

A fairy dances 

In upland pastures, 

Picking tart crabapples, 

Swinging low; 
Twisted and green, 
Elfin-mouthed, lean, 
His feet may be chained 

They are never slow. 

He slyly peeps under 
Bushes of wonder, 
Hunts for thistles 
In hedgerow trees 
[ 32 ] 



And straight thereafter 
Tickles to laughter 
Solemn asses 

On bended knees. 

Where his sharp wits go 

Occasions grow. 

The blind see meadows 

Of waving corn ; 
Men mazed with talking 
Find lost hopes walking 
When he conjures roses 

Out of a thorn. 



[ 33 ] 



GARDENS OF BABYLON 

Huddled chimneys, grey, forlorn, 
In the deadened light of a city morn. 
Rooftops ranging, red and high, 
Tenement windows glaring, dry. 

And — flower pots ! 

Gaily caparisoned flower pots. 
Nodding against the sky ! 

Fire escapes alive with the green 
Of scarlet runner and Indian bean, 
Caught in a handful of black dirt. 
Carried home in a baby's skirt. . . 

Flower pots ! 

Verdantly growing flower pots. 
Lifting their blooms on high ! 
[ 34 ] 



Jack and the Beanstalk's magic might 
Vines spring up in a single night ! 
Old faces soften, children stare 
At the slender gardens in the air. 

Flower pots ! 

Meagre little clay flower pots 
Bring the glow of the country there ! 



[ 35 ] 



THE DRAGON'S GRANDMOTHER 

Titanic courage nerved this little frame 
To grapple fate. Thin, gnome-like, sadly lame. 
She steers her cockleshell along its way 
With never promise of a better day. 
For she is very old, bereft of kin. 
Scrubber of basements in the hurrying din 
Of the dragon city. Once she fell and lay 
Muttering, stricken. Those hours she nearly died. 
The priest brought draggled roses. (In her pride 
These mark an epoch !) Wizened, beady-eyed. 
She trembles forth upon her daily chore. . . . 
That withered, red geranium means much more. • • g 
You see ? — and those cheap chromos by the door ! 

[ 36 ] 



" FEATHERS — FLOWERS " 

'Feathers ! Don't fall among 'em_, ma'am! 

Sometimes they fills this garret deep. 
You can't see any ? Wonder why ! 

They bresh my face when I'm asleep. 

'Yes, three of us was living here. 
My mother, sister May, and me. 

It'll be two years in the spring 
Since I was left of all the three. 

'You see, our trade was day piece-work. 

We sorted feathers for the store. 
Made flowers — roses, violets — 

And piled *em up here on the floor. 
[ 37 ] 



"Red, blue and yellow and light green — 
They was reel pretty when all done; 
We'd lay trays on the window sill 
To watch *em shining in the sun. 

"One day a lady says to me, 

*I see you keep a flock of birds !* 
'Why, ma'am?' 'Because there's feathers here; 

Feathers and feathers !' Them's her words. 

"When momma and my sister went 

Seemed s'if I couldn't bear that sight ! 
I dropped the trade and took to sewing 
Long as my eyes could stand the light. 

"But then, wherever I would turn. 
Feathers was flying round my head ; 
And flowers ! I could see them blossom 
Through the wall paper by my bed. 
[ 38 ] 



'Sometimes they'd float along the ceiling, 

One day I f omid them in the milk ; 
And when I'd work at making dresses — 

Flowers would burst out of the silk. 

'What's that, ma'am ? I should leave this lodging 
And move to folks that doesn't know ? 

What if the feathers began to flutter. 
What if the flowers began to grow?** 



[ 39 ] 



ENEMIES 

I am afraid of the dark^ 

That it will not let me alone ; 

The intimacies of its silence 
Would kindle stone. 

But I'm more afraid of the light. 
For its spaces snatch my breath 

And make me question the time 
I shall travel with Death. 



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